"The people of this county deserve better from their politics and their politicians than they've been getting in recent years," writes Christine Todd Whitman in It's My Party Too. While hardly high praise for George W. Bush from a former member of his Cabinet (she served as director of the Environmental Protection Agency from January 2001 to May 2003), the real targets of her ire are some of her fellow Republicans who have forced the GOP to make a hard-right turn in recent years. Whitman argues that this shift poses a serious threat to the long-term health and competitiveness of the Republicans, a party in which moderates like Whitman, Colin Powell, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and George Pataki are paraded in public when necessary, but openly opposed behind the scenes. Whitman refers to those on the far right as "social fundamentalists" whose "mission is to advance their narrow ideological agenda" by using the government to impose their views on everyone else. Though she admits that evangelicals may have helped to win the 2004 election, they have claimed much more credit than they deserve for Bush's success, and she warns that catering to this narrow group will have consequences.

To achieve long-term success, she writes, the Republicans must move their focus back to the core issues that unite the true base of the party: less government, stronger national security, lower taxes combined with spending restraints, and job creation in the private sector--issues that have largely been pushed aside by efforts to ban abortion and embryonic stem cell research and a push to amend the Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. She also offers ideas for attracting more African Americans and women to the GOP, and highlights Republican environmental successes that have been ignored. It's My Party Too is a compelling analysis of the future of the Republican Party. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
It's her party and she'll cry if she wants to. Former EPA Chief and New Jersey governor Whitman laments the rightward shift in the Republican party, concerned that it "will now move so far to the right that it ends up alienating centrist voters and marginalizing itself." In her view, the aggressive tactics of the "social fundamentalists," to whom "the concept of choice...is anathema," are to blame. Only if centrists transform themselves into "radical moderates-people ready to fight for what they believe even if it makes waves in the party," can the party restore its equilibrium. Whitman explores her own GOP heritage and her adventures and misadventures with hot button issues like abortion, stem cell research, race, the environment and women's rights, reinforcing the party's distinguished record. For example, she points out that Republicans ensured passage of the Civil Rights Act and created the Clean Air Act. If moderates would only stand up for themselves, she contends, the party platform could return to the essential issues-"fiscal restraint, reasonable and open discussion of social issues, environmental policies that promote a balanced approach to environmental protection, and a foreign policy that is engaged with the rest of the world." While the writing is straightforward and the anecdotes interesting, the account drifts from its core theme, culminating in a plea to visit a grassroots Web site and a generic suggestion for "issues-oriented campaigns." Nowhere does Whitman identify who these social fundamentalists are, what they want or why they have proven so powerful in today's electoral environment despite being outnumbered. Though this book succeeds as an overview of the Republican party's accomplishments, it's a less than adequate battle plan for moderate Republications looking to attain their past glory. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
For all those wondering what the reelection of President George Bush means for the direction of American politics, Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and head of the EPA under Bush, offers her own thoughtful concerns. Specifically, Whitman wonders whether the Republican Party, in attempting to meet the demands of the Far Right, will suffer the same fate as the Democrats when they catered to the Far Left. Instead, she asserts, the party should focus on its basic beliefs of small government, fiscal responsibility, and strong security, and appeal to the middle ground. An avowed member of the party moderates referred to as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), Whitman cautions against wooing what she calls the social fundamentalists with wedge issues such as bans on gay marriage and the use of embryonic stem cells. Recalling her own experiences as a two-term governor and her rocky tenure with the EPA, Whitman offers an inside view of the ideological struggles within the Republican Party as it stands at a crossroads in modern American politics. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The Republican party is embroiled in a heated and high-stakes battle between its far-right and moderate wings-with conservatives declaring open warfare on the moderates who ask themselves "Whatever happened to the party of Lincoln?" Bearing profound implications not only for the future of the party but also for the future of American politics, this momentous battle will rage on no matter what the outcome of the presidential election.

Christine Todd Whitman retired as a member of the Bush administration in June 2003, tired of the ideological battles in Washington and eager to return home to New Jersey. A lifelong and loyal Republican and a leader of the party's moderate wing, she is a passionate believer in the power of the "productive middle" in politics. In the tradition of Democratic Senator Zell Miller's national bestseller A National Party No More, which critiqued the Democratic party's move to the far left, in It's My Party Too she offers a passionate and revealing insider's argument against the hijacking of her party by zealous "social fundamentalists." Recounting many stories from the front lines of her own battles, both as a two-term New Jersey governor and on the hot seat as EPA administrator, she takes readers inside the tumultuous world of our politics today to reveal how a moderate approach can work wonders while that of extremists only leads to more division and fewer solutions.

Relentlessly pushing their ideological stances on abortion rights, race relations, the environment, tax policy, and go-it-alone foreign policy, the conservative extremists are not only violating traditional Republican principles, she argues, but are also holding the party back from achieving a true majority. By playing so slavishly to the far-right base, running negative campaigns and marginalizing women, the party has forsaken the much broader base that propelled the "Reagan revolution" and has fueled the country's overheated polarization.

Writing with the straight-talking and keenly intelligent candor that launched her onto the national stage-and made her such an inspiration to women all around the country-Christie Whitman sounds a rallying cry that will be vital reading for the millions of moderate voters who are fed up with the extremism of both parties. From one of the leading moderates in the Republican party-and one of its most powerful women-a thoughtful and provocative critique of the party's hard turn to the right and a call to arms for a return to its moderate roots.

About the Author
Christine Todd Whitman served in the Bush cabinet as EPA administrator from January 2001 to May 2003. Prior to that she was the first woman elected governor of New Jersey, serving two terms from 1993 to 2000. The daughter of parents who were active at high levels in the Republican party, she has attended every Republican National Convention since 1956.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"A heated and high-stakes battle is raging within the Republican Party between its far-right faction and its moderate wing, and the outcome will be momentous for both the party and the country as a whole. Will the party interpret President Bush's reelection victory as a requirement to cater to the demands of the far-right base? If so, it will only fuel the flames of the overheated polarization that has gripped the country." "Or, as Christine Todd Whitman advocates in It's My Party Too, will the party seize this opportunity to return to a focus on the core Republican principles - those that propelled the "Reagan revolution" and that appeal to a broad base of Americans? By doing so, it can build a much stronger majority and bring the country together again. It is time, she says, for "radical moderates."" "Relentlessly pushing their rigid demands on abortion rights, stem cell research, the environment, and go-it-alone foreign policy, the far-right groups, whom Christine Whitman calls social fundamentalists, are not only violating traditional Republican principles, but are also seeking to purge the party of moderates, whom they called RINOS (Republicans in Name Only). Yet they fail to appreciate that the most popular Republicans in the country are all moderates." Whitman takes readers inside the tumultuous world of politics today to reveal how a moderate approach can work wonders, while the arrogant and unyielding bullying of the conservatives only leads to more division.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times - January 26, 2005

IT is one of the more fortunate footnotes of last week's inaugural festivities: When President Bush was sworn in for his second term, Christie Whitman, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency during his first term, was thousands of miles away, attending a corporate board meeting.

Mrs. Whitman said she had unsuccessfully urged the company, Texas Instruments, to reschedule, and that she nonetheless managed to attend a few pre-inaugural soirees in Washington. But given the furor Mrs. Whitman has ignited among some of the president's most fervent supporters, it's a wonder she made it out of the capital without celebrating conservatives using her as pinata....

Indianapolis Star - January 15, 2005

Christine Todd Whitman's autobiographical "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America" is a reasonable, well-thought-out prescription for the malady that ails American partisan politics today -- immoderation and ideological intolerance.

No question that politics in America has become a sort of trench warfare where stalemate, divisiveness, witless propaganda and constant infighting are deepening the alienation of voters at all levels. Whitman's book is a "soft manifesto" for returning to the core values of the Republican Party: equality of opportunity, limited government and fiscal restraint combined with lower taxes and a strong national defense. In short, it is an appeal for moderation in political life.

Whitman served in George W. Bush's first Cabinet as Environmental Protection Agency administrator until May 2003, when her strong advocacy for environmental protection ran afoul of party extremists. She was the first woman governor of New Jersey, serving two terms from 1993 to 2000.

Whitman's parents both were active at all levels of the party, and they included her in all aspects of their work. She attended her first Republican National Convention at age 9 in 1956, and has attended every convention since, serving as a national official in many.Whitman labels the extreme right-wing that now controls the party as "social fundamentalists whose sole mission is to advance their narrow ideological agenda -- (They) argue that they tipped the balance in the (2004) election and that the party can't win elections without them." But, she notes, "while winning elections is important, it is every bit as important to win them in ways that allow you to govern all the people once the ballots are counted."

Moderates must aggressively reclaim their lost heritage, she argues, or the party will continue to lose more of the broad-based center that is the core of American politics. For evidence, she cites former Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush as representing the "various ribs of the Republican Party, and none of them would have tolerated purging the party of those who didn't share their own particular brand of Republicanism."

Whitman makes a convincing argument that the Republican Party has a rich political-historical tradition that needs to be defended. She details how the party should return to its roots of racial and minority inclusion that date back to the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.Throughout the book, Whitman interweaves her experience as governor of New Jersey into her philosophy of national government. State government was for her the quintessential proving ground for testing sound policies and demonstrating how moderates can better accomplish the task of governing. That experience provides her with an important frame of reference for understanding and embracing government as "the art of the possible."

Her particular niche as a concerned environmentalist with an impressive track record of reform in New Jersey and her later conflict with the right wing in the Bush administration over national environmental policies are interesting reading on consensus building and moderation in politics.

Whitman carefully articulates action steps needed for her party's path back to moderation and future success.Farah, of Zionsville, is a writer and researcher who teaches at Ivy Tech.

The Washington Times

In October 1964, the year of Goldwater vs. Johnson, my wife and I visited friends in a Connecticut suburb of New York City. One evening they had a cocktail party, with about two dozen guests. All were Republicans. They were congenial, but upon discovering we were voting for Barry Goldwater when we got home to California, they were aghast. They dismissed him as an extremist, for they were "moderates" and, therefore, would vote for Lyndon Johnson. There was a time when Northeastern grandees dominated the Grand Old Party.

Christie Whitman, the author of "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," to be published Jan. 31, seems to think of those as halcyon days. She does not see the connection between her "traditional Republican values" ("limited government, lower taxes, the power of the markets and a strong national defense") and efforts to replace RINOS ("Republican in Name Only") with ones who will push for those values...

This is a readable book by an earnest, sometimes courageous and basically reasonable person. One comes away thinking there should be another chance for her in the public realm. Peter Hannaford is the author of "Recollections of Reagan: A Portrait of Ronald Reagan."
-January 25, 2005

Library Journal